In this artist spotlight, we feature Piotr Wolodkowicz, a nature, landscape and portrait painter, living in Chicago, United States. His oil paintings featured here are very colourful depictions of trees and nature.

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I am an artist of Polish decent living in Chicago. My family moved here when I was a child. I have always as long as I remember been involve with art.

Please tell us about your art…

I work mostly with oil on canvas.

I paint portraits and landscapes. They are expressionistic done with lot of color. I try to look at the landscape from a point of view of a child and the freedom that a child brings to their imagination.

Why do you create art?

I create art because if I don't my wife says I become intolerable. It helps me process all the information of my everyday life. The world around me, everything I see and experience through out my journey through the day and memories of childhood.

Can you remember the first time creating art?

I think it was when I was a child and taking images of popular culture and transforming them on paper. Lot of images were done on graph paper filled in with different colors so they looked like pixelated images.

What influenced your love of nature, displayed in your portrait paintings of trees?

I traveled a lot when I was a child and as a young adult, I was in the Navy and U.S. Marines. The things that I seen and the people I met changed my outlook on life. The different things that I seen made me accept how beautiful the world really is, even that a lot of people don't accept it or try to change it.

Do you earn a living from your art?

I made a living at certain parts of my life. Right now it contributes a big part to my income. Hard work and doing a lot of shows.

What is the main theme of your art, expressed through your medium of oil paint?

The theme I have been working with are trees. The standing people as Indians called them have been a big part of my life, I create portraits of them. Oil and the 2D medium helps me to show the color of the magnificent and often overlooked beings.

Who are your main influences to paint these nature portrait paintings depicting trees?

As a visual artist it would be strange not to mention Picasso, but the main influence is the creator of everything. When you look outside and walk or drive it is difficult not to see the vast creation done by the hand of God.